Something profound

Well I had thought of three profound things to put in this post. It could be that I ought to only come up with one at a time. Are things less profound when they are together? One of the characteristics of “profound” in my opinion is that it is rare. So they might lose some of their profoundness by being put together. Two are from C.S. Lewis and one from a lady at church. They all have to do with religion. I am only going to put one in now. It is from The Great Divorce:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”

It reminds me of the words to a hymn: “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.” I have always taken comfort in those words, feeling that I have good desires and for the most part I do. However this thought by Mr. Lewis puts a different slant on it. I do have some work to do to get my will in line with the Lord’s in all things and that’s just the things that I am already aware of. It’s not too frightening (or is it?) but I wonder what am I waiting for?

It is something to think about.

 

Sneaking back in

I read something a short time ago that was one of the most profound things I’ve seen. It made me want to do a post. I will let it be on its own post, though. So now that I’m back, I have to say I’m glad I didn’t really forget my password because it had been so long since I wrote. I thought maybe I had but it worked. Whew! Secondly, a lot has changed on here: format, etc. but that’s okay. I think I can figure it out.

I’m not sure of all the reasons why I stopped writing. It’s hard work. I’m very busy. It takes me a lot of time. But whatever the reason, this is such an opportunity just to have a way to practice communicating. Sometimes I think maybe I was never meant to “speak.” I mean other than the normal daily living kind of speaking, but it is such an aspiration of mine to be able to say things well–for lack of a better way to say it. Or at least to be able to express adequately what I have to say. I think I was inspired to pick my blog title as “What shall we then say?” That sure is the question for me!

Well we’ll see what happens.

 

Fear and sugar

I looked up the effects of sugar on health. I discovered that glucose and vitamin C have similar chemical structures. Therefore, they compete with each other when entering cells. If there is more sugar around, the less vitamin C is allowed to enter.

Faith and fear compete for the same ’space.’ too. I wonder how similar it is. I am all set to go at both enemies. I think it is wonderful how religion and science support each other! The more I understand one, the more I understand the other.

I liked the way this website: www.healingdaily.com, explained things. I want to know more. I also like the way the scriptures explain things. I want to know more!

 

Let the Spirit guide

In a little meeting tonight on teaching, it was pointed out that we need to let the Spirit guide us rather than try to do it ourselves. Letting the Spirit guide means to me not necessarily knowing ahead of time what I will say but that it will be given in the very moment what to say. That takes a lot of trust. When I am comfortable in a conversation, that is what happens. I certainly don’t plan ahead what I’m going to say to my daughters when they call me, it just comes out. I would love to be able to teach that way!

It’s bedtime and I don’t even feel the need to really finish this post. However, I am going to post it anyway!

 

Why not write?

Well I thought that would be a suitable title. One reason right off the bat is to move down the last title “Numb is good.” I didn’t realize that was what got left there for about 21 days! Sorry! I did the follow-up dental visit yesterday and here I am doing a sortof follow-up post–but not on the dental visit–it’s a follow-up to not writing. I know that’s probably weird but it makes a little sense to me.

Why do I find it hard to write? I guess I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing and speaking. My ego is really involved in those two things. I guess it’s a pride thing. I can play the organ in front of a whole congregation of people and make some mistakes without feeling all that bad. I’d rather do really well but it’s okay if I don’t always get the right note. I can practice and get better at home without much trouble, too. Unfortunately, practicing speaking is not that easy. My brain just doesn’t get engaged if it’s just practice. It has to be the real thing.

Blogging is the real thing. But it is more like practice than being face to face with people. I know who my main readers are and I’m not scared of any of you but boy, it is sure hard to put a bunch of words together in a nicely done way! This is something I want to get good at! I don’t know if it’s a righteous desire or what but I feel driven! I think it probably comes from deciding when I was young in school that the ones who can ‘talk’ have it made. Still to this day I have great admiration for those who can say things well. I have been so benefited by what others say. It’s a noble desire to be able to inspire people. If it’s just for the glory, it’s not a good thing but I don’t think that’s what it’s all about for me now.

Well I’m determined to figure it out. I cannot spend an exorbitant amount of time each day–which becomes one of the reasons I don’t write more but I’m going to figure something out that I can work with to get this heartfelt desire accomplished. I’m thinking of the post that Holly wrote recently with the quote from Neal A. Maxwell: …”We made room for each other to grow, to make dumb mistakes, to repent…” I have to be able to make dumb mistakes and be okay with it. On that note I will end for today!

 

Numb is good

I went to the dentist today and it took two hours for them to do what needed doing! I was mildly shocked when I got out to my car and saw that it was 6:00. I think part of the reason it was such a surprise is that they made it a very pleasant experience. The assistant asked me what kind of music I liked. I said classical, Classical 89. She said, they didn’t have a particular station but there were three choices for classical. It was a satellite, thing. Anyway, the clouds did interrupt the flow of the music a number of times but at one point I was so fortunate as to get to hear Mozart’s bassoon concerto. I thought, Wow, what are the chances of that?” I love bassoon sounds. I don’t play it very well but it is my instrument. How time flies when you’re listening to nice music.

It is now 9:09 and I am still very numb. I’m a little nervous about when it wears off but of course am looking forward to it, also. They got me numb enough right off at the start. That is a very good thing!! I had a crown replacement put in. My other crown allowed some decay to get started under there. They noticed that on my last 6-month appointment. I had very little pain in the area but if it had been postponed too long, the root would have been involved and pain would follow surely. Why am I telling you all this?

Anyway, it was actually a pleasant experience. I felt very comfortable talking to the young dentist who is getting married this Saturday in the Salt Lake Temple. He’s a little nervous about the crowd but figures it will work out somehow. I really liked his assistant, also. She was fun to talk to. I learned something that I want to use when I go visiting for Relief Society. I want to get to know what kinds of books or music or movies that people like. It’s such an easy thing to talk about and feel good about. I made it easy today because I had my library copy of Pride and Prejudice with me on my lap. So they were curious. I can’t remember now what their favorites were but it was fun!

Well to finish this weird post off, I’ll just affirm that numb is good when a dentist is in your mouth!

 

…ask nothing of us at all

I took a few notes last night as I watched the State of the Union address. President Bush is saying so much that he is going to do or that is going to be done. It seems so comprehensive. I wonder what is being done? Why aren’t these things already happening? Or have already happened? I did listen to the whole address along with “a whole nother round of applause” as Charles Gibson put it, repeated over and over through the speech.

Well then I listened to the Democratic response by the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius. She preferred it to be called an “American response.” She posed this question: What in the world does any of that have to do with me? Later she said, “We are tired of leaders who rather than asking what we can do for our country, ask nothing of us at all.”

Our soldiers are an exception as my son was quick to point out but I thought, wow, that’s kind of what it’s like isn’t it? I mean, it’s supposed to be a big deal that some of us are going to get a check for $600 in the mail. I could use it as much as anybody–well not anybody but I am on a very tight budget. I just don’t see how that kind of thinking along with no raising of taxes, can help.

I just don’t get it. Let’s just say I liked her speech better than the President’s.

 

Too many categories!

I sure hope I can figure out how to delete a lot of my categories. There are way too many. It bugs me to have to go down that whole list to get to the bottom. Holly thought maybe I would have to go through and take them out of each post. It would be worth it if it works! Maybe I will try a few and see what happens. Wish me luck!

LOL–After I posted this I realized I had left it “uncategorized.” So I’m coming back to say that I don’t like “uncategorized” as a category but what am I going to come up with??

Oh well, first I’m going to think about which categories I want to keep. Then I’ll put it in one of them.

 

Tomorrow will come!

I heard a poem today that I don’t really like. And since it was bothering me, I’ve decided to write about it. It takes more nerve than I usually have but I’m going to do it. The poem is entitled “Tomorrow Never Comes.” With all due respect and sympathy to the man who lost his wife in an airplane accident, I still want to just differ with a few of the ideas. I hope I don’t seem too hard-hearted.

It’s in the November 2007 Ensign on page 75. I’m going to quote a bit from it and then state my views.

“If I knew this would be the last time I saw you sleep, I would hug you tighter….” I don’t like living in fear-I don’t even want to think that. Faith tells me that it isn’t ever going to be the last time I see my loved one. Life doesn’t end in this life. We will see our loved ones again. Life doesn’t end ever.

“If I knew…I would plead with the Lord to protect you….” I do pray every day for my loved ones to be protected. I think it makes a difference. But I also know that we do all get to leave this life when the Lord sees fit. I’m not in any hurry for myself or my loved ones to go on…so that’s why I pray for protection.

“If I knew…I would be by your side, spending the day with you instead of thinking, ‘Well, I’m sure other opportunities will come…” Well, in fact other opportunities do come almost always, even in this life. The odds are in our favor. “And we would have a second chance to do things right.” In fact, we all have lots of second chances–repentance is a gift from God. There will be a day to revise things!

“…and the future might not come!” I think the future will be wonderful. Of course it will come! Part of it may not be what we think we want but even if we have to endure some really tough things, there is a wonderful future for us! A loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ see to that.

I’m glad I don’t know when. That wouldn’t work for me. I like it the way it is.

 

“Suck it up!”

Well this seems scarey again. It’s been almost two weeks since I wrote on here. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I think I’ve been having some “growing pains.” I’m having a lot more situations where I have to express myself and I’ve not been impressed with how I’ve done. I had done a pretty good job of avoiding awkward situations with people by being so content with my life as it was, just interacting with my family and doing the minimal friendly talk at church, enjoying hobbies, etc.

Well I need to just “suck it up,” as my daughter-in-law frequently says to her kids. I just looked that up on Google because I had always thought that Annette had made it up herself. But then it occurred to me that maybe she hadn’t. Sure enough, I put the phrase with quotation marks around it in and got: Teach Your Children to “Suck it Up!” Surprise! Yesterday when she told Maddie to “suck it up” I told her that I liked how she was with her kids. They’re tough! She said it’s good except when you’re sure your kid’s got appendicitis and she’s doing such a good a job of “sucking it up” that the doctor doubts that she’s got it.

Okay, this feels therapeutic. I had no idea that I would come up with this until I was here writing. It is good advice for me from me. Writing is good. I’m not very good at it but people will just have to tolerate me until I get good. In the meantime I will just “suck it up” and get on with it.

Thanks, Annette